[ LETTER ]

Military Draft Shows Young How the Rest of The Country Lives

Published: Saturday, June 22, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, June 21, 2013 at 8:28 p.m.

The biggest positive to having an armed-service draft is that it takes young people out of their comfort zones, introduces them to ideas and customs in their own country that are vastly different from those of their own "tribe" and from which they have been carefully insulated.

I was amazed when I was drafted in the early 1960s at how differently other parts of my country viewed things compared with my upbringing.

For instance, I invited a young man from Nashville to join my family and me in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving in 1962. Several of us were driving along a street in Springfield, when suddenly Hal screamed from the back seat, "Stop the car." I didn't know why he was alarmed but I stopped.

He jumped out of the car, ran across the street, and stood hanging on a chain-link fence around a schoolyard, where black and white children were at recess, playing together with swings, teeter-totters and jump ropes.

"I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," he exclaimed. His tribe had taught him that blacks and whites could not be schooled together and this sight just rocked him to his foundation.

Having to fight seemingly senseless wars is a bummer, but the draft is a great way to "homogenize" the country, and to develop self-confidence and critical thinking in our young people.

<p>The biggest positive to having an armed-service draft is that it takes young people out of their comfort zones, introduces them to ideas and customs in their own country that are vastly different from those of their own "tribe" and from which they have been carefully insulated.</p><p>I was amazed when I was drafted in the early 1960s at how differently other parts of my country viewed things compared with my upbringing.</p><p>For instance, I invited a young man from Nashville to join my family and me in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving in 1962. Several of us were driving along a street in Springfield, when suddenly Hal screamed from the back seat, "Stop the car." I didn't know why he was alarmed but I stopped.</p><p>He jumped out of the car, ran across the street, and stood hanging on a chain-link fence around a schoolyard, where black and white children were at recess, playing together with swings, teeter-totters and jump ropes.</p><p>"I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," he exclaimed. His tribe had taught him that blacks and whites could not be schooled together and this sight just rocked him to his foundation.</p><p>Having to fight seemingly senseless wars is a bummer, but the draft is a great way to "homogenize" the country, and to develop self-confidence and critical thinking in our young people.</p><p>HUGH SMITH</p><p>Lakeland</p>